WHEN a hiker set off on an idyllic walk in a quiet nature reserve, it quickly turned into the stuff of nightmares when he came across a badly decomposing body that had been wedged inside a fallen tree.
It was the body of Karen Ristevski, 47, who had vanished from her $1.1million two-storey home in Avondale Heights, northwest of Melbourne, in June 2016, eight months earlier.
Since that day, her distraught family had feared she’d been murdered and spent every passing second desperately trying to locate her.
Meanwhile, police conducted several searches using a cadaver dog, scoured through rivers, drained dams and searched high and low through farmland.
But it turns out their efforts were all in vain…
Karen’s husband of 27 years, Borce, 55, maintained the image of a devastated husband as he door knocked, aided searches and even helped with emotional media appeals.
Yet it turned out he was the very person responsible for her disappearance.
For years, Borce played the act of worried husband and repeatedly denied having any involvement in his wife’s death – and, to this day, he’s never revealed exactly what happened to his wife, or why he killed her on the morning of June 29, 2016.
But through it all, their daughter Sarah, who was 21 at the time of her mother’s death, stood by him, despite his guilty plea to his wife’s manslaughter.
“I just think, ‘Why Mum? Why did something happen to her? Why us?’ You hear about things that could happen and you don’t think they could happen to you and your family,” Sarah said, speaking to 60 Minutes Australia.
“She’s on my mind all the time and I can’t get it out of my head.
“I have no doubt in my mind that my dad loves my mum, I have no doubt in my mind and he’s hurting as much as I am.”
Borce had told Sarah that her mother, a dress shop owner, had gone for a walk and never returned, but that proved to be nothing short of a lie to cover up his deadly secret…
After killing his wife at their Avondale Heights home, Borce put her body in the boot of his car and drove to Mount Macedon, where he hid it in a nature reserve under logs, branches and foliage.
A local resident and regular walker recalled how he smelled a rancid stench in the area for months but assumed it was a dead kangaroo and never investigated it further, he told 3AW.
By the time the mother-of-one’s remains were found in February 2017, 52 kilometres from her Melbourne house, it was impossible for forensic examiners to determine her cause of death.
Following the discovery of the 47-year-old’s body, police pieced together CCTV footage and phone records, which eventually led to Borce’s arrest.
Borce Ristevski, who had denied his involvement for almost three years, was originally charged with murder in 2017 but later pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the eve of the trial after prosecutors were unable to prove murderous intent.
In April 2019 he was sentenced to a maximum nine years in jail and given a non-parole period of six years.
On sentencing, Justice Christopher Beale said he did not have enough information to determine the severity of the killing.
Despite killing her mother, Borce’s daughter Sarah provided a glowing reference for him, describing him as “loving, caring, sympathetic, protective and charismatic”.
Speaking to 60 Minutes Australia, she revealed that when she asked her dad whether he had anything to do with her mother’s death, he insisted that he didn’t.
But did she believe him?
“He’s my dad and nothing has changed,” she said. “Even though he’s pleaded guilty I find it hard to comprehend that he is guilty. I think if he were in my position he would support me.
“He’s my father. I have one parent left…I loved him before, I love him now and I’ll love him in 11 years when he’s home.”
During sentencing, Justice Christopher Beale criticised Borce for displaying “deceitful conduct” that showed a lack of remorse as he played “the part of the innocent grieving widower”.
He also pointed out that he still had not revealed how or why he killed his wife.
“No sentence I can impose will undo the suffering you have caused and continue to cause to those who knew and loved Karen,” Justice Beale said.
Outside court, Karen’s brother Stephen Williams told of his disappointment at the sentencing.
Speaking to reporters, he said: “Nothing was going to bring Karen back, but today was about justice, and we didn’t get justice today at all.”
As reported by ABC news, the case against Borce comprised of a string of inconsistent and misleading statements he made to police and loved ones in the months following his wife’s disappearance.
Court filings detailed his efforts to deceive both police and relatives during the inquiry, including by repeatedly switching phone numbers and cautioning a family member that police were “listening”.
At a prior hearing, prosecutors said the couple had argued on the morning of Karen’s death over her clothing business, which was burdened with debts exceeding $400,000.
The news outlet also reported that Borce repeatedly altered his account of the morning she disappeared – at one point telling police they had argued and that she left the house after saying: “I can’t talk to you right now – I’m going to clear my head.”
Phone records also showed that he did not call any family or friends about his wife’s whereabouts after she disappeared, and instead reported her missing 24 hours after killing her.
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In December 2019, Borce was resentenced at the Victorian Court of Appeal, with his jail term extended to 13 years, ten without the chance for parole.
Acting for the Office of Public Prosecutions, Brendan Kissane QC argued that the killer’s “wheel of lies” concerning his wife’s disappearance, coupled with his refusal to disclose how he killed her, justified a more severe sentence.
He also said Borce’s dumping of the body and continued silence “indicates that something bad happened in the house”.
Speaking outside court on the verdict, Karen’s brother Stephen commented: “I wanted capital punishment to be brought back in but that was never going to happen.”
